Major Road Ahead - Constructing the M1 Motorway - Short Documentary (1958)

[@andyrad]

19 months to make 55 miles of dual carriageway from scratch yet its taking what seems like 4 years to make some emergency laybys near Sheffield! 😅

[@alimack5489]

Now it’s taking them a year to replace a few miles of the barriers on the M1.

[@benwyatt7619]

Tell me about it. All because they messed up big time by making it a smart motorway in the first place only a few years prior

[@martinsykes1257]

About 16 months for like 10 little breakdown areas which they should have really seen as needed 5 years earlier when they removed them.

[@darrenquarterman2611]

4years to repair a bridge in Bristol 😂

[@AddyBittler-]

@@martinsykes1257exactly who thinks these brain dead schemes is it on purpose would you say? Or just ineptitude?

[@tonermaloner6718]

19 months, that is bonkers. no computers or smart phones no posh air conditioned plant. now it would take 24 months to do a Newt survey before the archaeologists go in. its all designed to take as long as possible so they can cream the fuck out of it.

[@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts]

I'm surprised by some of the construction efforts during the war - some devastating destruction was repaired and up and running again within days, and not just a temporary fix!

[@ricbchirop4355]

No smart phones. That’s probably one reason it got built quickly

[@Westhamsterdam]

@@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts Yes, main line railway bridges

[@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg]

​@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts when there's a national or international emergency we can still do it. Thinking of the covid vaccine.

[@dappergent9422]

The legendary M1. I remember when you cruise down from Leeds to London without fear of an overhead speed camera or Idiotic 'Clean Air Zone', and miles of roadworks with no one working...

[@fishman501]

I don't see what's idiotic about clean air or enforcement of safe speed limits

[@gary6576]

Clean air is bloody woke!

[@Steveholmes1972]

dirty air is more intelligent?

[@fishman501]

@@gary6576 How is clean air woke???

[@johnmartinez7440]

​@fishman501 They're miserable, and they want everyone else to be miserable too.

[@Valerie_st220]

Seems like some of the M1 is still under construction. Roadworks never end.

[@DavidW-nx2zs]

Nor does the on-going repair bill

[@gary6576]

@@DavidW-nx2zs well obviously

[@Lovelylove4everyone]

Who doesn't love a Mr Cholmondley-Warner lecture

[@simonmason8582]

BBC newsreader, Richard Baker.

[@Lovelylove4everyone]

@@simonmason8582 I remember him and Kenny Kendal

[@simonmason8582]

@@Lovelylove4everyone He did Mary, Mungo and Midge as well!

[@Lovelylove4everyone]

@@simonmason8582 true, I'd forgot that

[@tangerinedream7211]

Makes today's workers and equipment seem a bit of a joke on HS2. Planning takes about four times that these days, thanks for the upload.

[@bfapple]

It helps that the M1 wasn’t routed through the Chilterns.

[@andystreet4022]

My late father in law Roy Selway worked for Laing in those days and cut his teeth on the M1. He became a Senior Purchasing Agent for the Company and was heavily involved with the reconstruction of both Coventry Cathedral and the BullRing/New Street Station in Birmingham. Proud man and a real gentleman with an encyclopedic knowledge of Laing Construction from an era that required brain power before computers took over.

[@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg]

A great company. Great shame they went bust over 3 jobs that went wrong all at the same time.. Still they got bailed out for £1 by Ray O'Rourke and now trade as Laing O'Rourke.

[@handyandy6050]

Rumour has it, the Yorkshire bit was planned to be cobbled.

[@spaceskipster4412]

😂

[@boblordylordyhowie]

It shows how technology has changed the way we do things. There is a project here to build two bridges and a mile of motorway, it is to take two years and the M1 was done in 18 months.

[@dr-mn7ld]

Nothing to do with technology - look at China. It's our bureaucracy, planning, nimbys, health and safety.

[@daiprout323]

Hoping to catch a glimpse of my grandad. He was a Navi driver on this. I remember his old donkey jacket with the L.

[@dick6969100]

what no high vis jackets how did they manage lol

[@johnmartinez7440]

Are you suggesting that safety is...bad?

[@davec1179]

Ah, the good old days when everyone was working hard. Today we have 20 people in hi-vis watching one working, when he is not on his phone.

[@kennybrown5607]

Ahhh back in the days when you could doze a Forrest before breakfast and nobody missed a beat

[@mickyday2008]

My dad worked for Laings building the M6. I drove along it in his works van sitting on his knee doing the steering

[@ds_e5202]

Funny how both the railway lines mentioned would later close in the mid-60s. Coincidence?

[@bell191991]

Exactly my thoughts. The railways were completely undercut by this. Also more pollution and car congestion was actually caused by the motorway construction, because of the Downs-Thomsom paradox.

[@kailashrai9536]

Interesting documentary

[@Cdr_Mansfield_Cumming]

Today, they would have 5,000 consultants doubling the time and tripling the cost. Look at HS2, £16bn budget, now £70bn and only half is being built, 5 years behind schedule. The 1950’s, when Britain actually work, Ed!

[@nigelhall6714]

So...19 months...or around the same amount of time to build a couple of dozen 'safety areas' on the M1 now...WOW. How lame are we now?

[@SampleTracks2224]

Lame enough to have driven me away to better shores. Had enough!

[@DavidSmith-648]

Recognise (former BBC newscaster and concert pianist) Richard Baker

[@infidelcastro5129]

And don’t forget Mary, Mungo & Midge narrator ❤😊

[@DavidSmith-648]

@@infidelcastro5129 And Teddy Edward as well I think

[@infidelcastro5129]

@@DavidSmith-648 Wow, that takes me back!

[@anthonycurran362]

Amazing👍

[@ianwatson4481]

Progress has only slowed us down.

[@ibelieveyou2066]

Ah, the good old days. When things got done, and people were happy to do things, as part of something. All that employment, all those trades.

[@seanrodgers1839]

Too bad they can't build stuff on time and on budget any more. The good old days of competent people.

[@glenseddon7379]

Yep, that was a time of common sense, competence, and hard work !

[@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg]

They didn't have health and safety back then. I recall when I started work with a foundation engineering company in 1966 we had a safety inspector who fell into an open deep pile shaft on the Didcot power station contract. And a 38 tonne crane that ran down Winchester High Street and flattened an Austin 1100.

[@darrenfarrell-bn2cb]

My Grandfather Worked on it Right up to The End he layed the Concrete finish on it the whole way With Fitzpatrick Ltd . With a Massive Concrete Finishing machine.

[@TrevorWilliams-fq8mg]

It was built in a different era with different rules. No health and safety, no complex construction contracts, very little existing infrastructure to divert, no complex planning rules.

[@robbutterill1426]

19 months to do 55 miles of brand new road? the size of the workforce must have been massive

[@grahamvincent6977]

At one point, the commentary says "70 men per mile", which would make the workforce 3,850 strong.

[@tepidtuna7450]

Thought the same. These days that would be 5 years. Progress is now Decline.

[@scottpeacock5492]

@@tepidtuna7450 I Blame the nimbys and the eviromentalist nutter of today for the slow progress.

[@DavidW-nx2zs]

As well as the huge cost of these new M-ways, what about the long-term repair bill?

[@Arthur-Woolley]

Nowadays it takes them 24 months to repair a 15 mile stretch of central reservation

[@colinstuartsmith]

ahhhhhhh ... the days of empire when britain actually constructed things

[@fishman501]

I wouldn't say the days of the british "empire" were good

[@mickwillis6981]

Bugger all to do with ‘empire’

[@Jake4]

@@fishman501 They were great!

[@fishman501]

@@Jake4 Really?

[@JakobHill]

The empire was already dead for all intents and purposes, and the Suez crisis made that obvious to the world. More like Britons were united by the horrific experience of WW2 and were committed to moving forward.

[@cruncheyc8185]

We would struggle to complete a project of that size and scale today real men not afraid of a hard days work

[@1878EFC]

Brilliant... why the F can't we do this now!!!!!!

[@willj1927]

No sense of urgency and responsibility anymore? (A phrase used by the narration).

[@johnmartinez7440]

Because it's already been built?

[@MichaelCook84]

Moved to Newcastle in 2009. The A1 that goes through the middle of it was being upgraded then and a 50mph work force zone. Its now 2024 and they are still absolutely nowhere near finishing it.

[@crumplezone1]

Imagine Angela Raynor trying to manage a huge development like the M1, she`d be too busy at a rave in Ibza

[@ruscador1]

or offering her body to anyone in stockport

[@johnmartinez7440]

You read the Daily Mail too much.

[@crumplezone1]

@@johnmartinez7440 You don`t read it enough

[@ayrshirefromabove2223]

I would like to know how “congested” an A road was in 1958. 🤔

[@eddiejones.redvees]

£16 million will only pay for one mile to day

[@mwd331]

Remember that it’s actually £300m with inflation.. however it would be in the billions today I’m sure

[@AndrewKeyz]

@@mwd331 Probably a trillion when accounting for corruption tax, see HS2.

[@DavidW-nx2zs]

And over 50 years, how much will it cost (each mile) to repair?

[@mikewatte4478]

Big tough irish men built it

[@bobdillon2642]

about 40% of navvies in England made up of Irish

[@scottpeacock5492]

@@bobdillon2642 And the irish builders wouldn't let anyone stand in the way of progress if any eviromentalist nutters got in the way.

[@basilguts1786]

Some tough Irish men.

[@johnmartinez7440]

​@@scottpeacock5492 ...what?

[@dannycarter1966]

I would imagine Ernest Marples got a fat backhander out of this. One of many.

[@samconnolly6081]

And now it takes 2 years to put a few new emergency refuge areas in

[@mushypeas.4124]

It’s still not finished.

[@ianspeight7002]

Too many NIMBYS stopping projects today .

[@Westhamsterdam]

How were the UK railways constructed in the 1840´s without all this machinery & technology?

[@shaunwest3612]

By hand,by navies 💪

[@gary6576]

@@Westhamsterdam rail is easier to build than roadways.

[@Westhamsterdam]

@@gary6576 No it´s not a railway has to be flat with very low gradients so the Victorians would have been faced with viaducts/tunnels. Today´s railways are built using a concrete base. I think the Victorians just built upon clay. Makes you wonder have the tracks don´t sink in wet weather.

[@petergardner5002]

Ditto the pyramids

[@thomaswykes3647]

They shut the Great Central Mainline Railway to justify building the M1. They built it alongside the GCR!

[@phoenixtrades150]

19 months for the entire 55 miles of the M1, and its taking 3.5 years to rebuild the Black Cat roundabout? We have gone very wrong somewhere.

[@jpip1382]

All that beautiful countryside ruined forever…

[@Bibg867]

The Italians and Germans built their motorway network in the 30’s. Ours many years later.

[@-Katastrophe]

Why are some of them labeled A something anyway? shouldn't it be E or B for england or britian?

[@ChuChuTVOfficial-111]

so this guy from france so he liked the 'N' roads rotating from Paris so he had an idea. he wanted the UK to have a roads.

[@darrenfarrell-bn2cb]

Canadians came over to cut down the trees it was a massive job

[@ssss-df5qz]

Is it just me or can no one else see a river where the viaducts are? I can see a stream but no river.

[@KevinClifford-y2b]

I remember my dad working on the last section of the M1 ,the Leicester,Coalville section,he used to take me on the tractor up and down the motorway,in fact most of his pals would take me in their machines from motor graders to motor scrapers ,I’ve been working on construction plant all my working life and still do 😊

[@colinbrooks228]

interstest the amout of railway line they crossed that are no longer now there

[@Dan-o3m6e]

19 months 55 miles 16 mill. Shows you how much these companies are pinching money in these company projects

[@merlin5476]

A friend of mine went to china around 10 yrs ago on a business trip for 5 weeks & he said he was staggered that they completed a motorway & finished in that 5 weeks. I know of a part of the A127 that had alterations and took over 2 yrs to complete 😂 and 2 yrs after THAT completion it had to be re altered as it was a crap design 🤡

[@Westhamsterdam]

Trouble is China, is not known for quality there are lots of problems with infrastructure collapsing or high speed trains crashing. It´s all covered over.

[@CaptainCuttle-mi5rt]

Gracious me 16 million for 55 miles of motorway built in under two years. These days it costs that to fix a pothole in two years.

[@martinsmith1870]

If that were now it would take them 19 months just to get out of Starbucks on the first day 🙄

[@trivadpt]

This is how much it would have cost today when you factor in inflation: £81,108,272.01

[@heinz551]

It's impressive how they did all that with no knowledge, no computers or modern machines and no high-vis all in just 19 months. Nowadays it takes longer than that to add an extra lane. It seems we've gone backwards in construction

[@simonminzzy5952]

😂

[@SampleTracks2224]

Yep. Absolutely. If British people from 1959 could look at how parlous and stupid it had become in 2024, with all those cool "computers" and "data" that people cannot fathom life without, they'd all have emigrated

[@JonathanCreaser]

Nowadays, it takes longer than that to mess about adding more safety areas to the nonsensical 'smart' motorways. It took FOUR years to turn the M4 J3 to J12 into a smart motorway 😅

[@kloecknerleeds1948]

Thats how it should be do e nowadays get on with it no messing plan it properly job done its taken 2years to put some emergency laybys in on the M1 what are they playi g at

[@johnmartinez7440]

Type in coherent English, please.

[@neilfleck4178]

has tarmac been invented yet ?

[@Westhamsterdam]

No, it would have been made out of reinforced concrete. Tarmac might have been around. Like petroleum these were waste products.

[@SampleTracks2224]

​@@Westhamsterdameh? Tarmac was invented at the beginning of the 20rh century

[@Westhamsterdam]

@@SampleTracks2224 Yes, you're correct but before the 1980's most UK roads were done with reinforced concrete because it has double the lifespan

[@hiscifi2986]

Unfortunately the Germans had built AutoBahns 20 years previous.

[@Lovelylove4everyone]

Italian autostrada even earlier

[@m101ist]

And Roman roads in Britain thousands of years ago.

[@oddities-whatnot]

I absolutely detest the M1. Spent many an hour on there, it’s very depressing.

[@simonmason8582]

No safety glasses - wonder how many eyes were lost?

[@sh3riff]

If only they made it 6 lanes aside and concrete blocks down the middle when they first started building it!!!!

[@kennybrown5607]

When men were men and woman wore the braces 😎

[@markgomez3688]

To complete 19 months to build the M1, British engineering at its best over engineered to last for ever. Built by proper men to last, unlike now men who work at a shyt slow pace quality is down the drain... on all the roads, at every turn another set of lights with roadworks. Same place Dig it up again and again fixing the same place again and again....

[@Xoltius]

Remove the politics, environmentalists, health and safety and all the red tape. Throw bags of money at it and employ the right people and look what can be achieved. Those days are long gone.

[@leeebbrell9]

It must have been a great positive time, when investment was building things, so different these days

[@petergardner5002]

Got it done with no DEI hires

[@shaunwest3612]

Incredible feat of engineering, would never be done in 19 months these days,too much health and safety bullshit, when people wanted to work.

[@bendoherty7721]

Isn’t it still in progress. It’s embarrassing

[@johnburns6422]

Don,t forget the IRISH workers backbreaking work and Glad to do so they were born to Emigrate Ireland had nothing to offer them ,

[@ededdynova]

😢😮men were men back then now they dont even want to get dirty and cost after being sub contracted out 5 times for each tender its inflated to 1 billion per mile and a year plus to do that mile 😂

[@Hairyegg]

HS2 take notice won’t happen now counties not got a pot to piddle in

[@SampleTracks2224]

It's pissing £70,000,000,000 into the pot and getting nothing done. All out of borrowing and taxes, of course. Growth is evil.

[@nickhowes5348]

Should have never been allowed

[@Mr_Sh1tcoin]

Right ok

[@ruscador1]

so fast to build but the idiots nowadays are still repairing the ouse bridge for about two years